Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation

This is a discussion on Rants on Bangalore's traffic situation within Street Experiences, part of the Buckle Up category; Originally Posted by shamanth
It may not be the only solution, but one of the solution which was sanctioned and ...

It may not be the only solution, but one of the solution which was sanctioned and funded. You may mention other available solutions and what stage it is in ?

Without going into the semantics of whether it was an actual 'solution', there are many other things to be considered both environmentally and from a city planning perspective. Yes, this may have been sanctioned and funded, but at what cost and sustainability in the long run and not to forget the consequential impact on the environment. It has been mentioned in these many pages of rants that flyovers have not been successful in Bangalore for many reasons.

A more forward-looking idea would have been to think of mass rapid transport systems and suburban rain than encourage individual users to take their cars and line-up at the start of the on-ramp to this flyover. Imagine the chaos 20 years down the line if this idea was implemented.

Yes, this may have been sanctioned and funded, but at what cost and sustainability in the long run and not to forget the consequential impact on the environment. It has been mentioned in these many pages of rants that flyovers have not been successful in Bangalore for many reasons.

A more forward-looking idea would have been to think of mass rapid transport systems and suburban rain than encourage individual users to take their cars and line-up at the start of the on-ramp to this flyover. Imagine the chaos 20 years down the line if this idea was implemented.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vysakh

It would never have been the solution. If it had come up, there would've been two flyovers with stagnant traffic on them.

I knew i will get these responses like, environmental impact, Plan for Mass rapid transport system, it was not a solution, there will never be any solution, etc. I am not giving any opinions, we deserve this, lets suffer together, 30 mins to 1 hour jam at Hebbal flyover, we should be able to tolerate it.

Disgruntled with the negligence of government agencies, many multi-national companies across the city have planned to include pothole repair in their Company Social Responsibility (CSR) activity agenda.

Update from Manyatha Embassy group is that BBMP has informed them that this white topping work on the ORR towards Horamavu Junction is expected to be completed in 15 days.

No offense to anyone, but this white topping activity has reduced by commute time to office to a great extent. I join ORR near ISRO, Doddanekkundi and drive up to Embassy Tech Village. Earlier my travel time was at least one hour from HAL to ETV. Last few days, I was able to complete the same distance in about half an hour

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Last edited by airbus : 29th November 2017 at 12:27.
Reason: Added context.

I knew i will get these responses like, environmental impact, Plan for Mass rapid transport system, it was not a solution, there will never be any solution, etc. I am not giving any opinions, we deserve this, lets suffer together, 30 mins to 1 hour jam at Hebbal flyover, we should be able to tolerate it.

The main reason it was made to be stopped was the prohibitive costs involved and the perception that it was mostly done to support elections elsewhere.

These people cant even maintain the tarmac on flyovers smooth. How will they maintain something that needs a lot of care regularly.

How come BTP are suddenly carrying out such enthusiastic stop-and-check this week? At least in north Bangalore, they are suddenly everywhere and catching especially 2W & LCV/ULCV tribe.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for it! Idiots like me renew PUC and insurance 1 week early just to be sure, try to maintain 100% traffic discipline, and generally comply with all regulations.

For this reason, I always carry the RC, and the rest of the documents are in the bike itself. My exhaust is too loud though since the screw for the db killer fell out, and I need to get to Indimotard to get another screw installed. Till then, I'm riding quite sedately, which is helpful while all these checks are happening.

In other news, there was mild rain this morning at Hennur cross on ORR, but there was significant traffic in Cooke Town and Lingarajapuram but I was able to squeeze past all of it on the bike and my travel time from Thirumenhalli to Indiranagar was around 45-50 minutes. Not bad for 19 km in Bangalore.

How come BTP are suddenly carrying out such enthusiastic stop-and-check this week? At least in north Bangalore, they are suddenly everywhere and catching especially 2W & LCV/ULCV tribe.

Not just in North Bangalore, everywhere. They have this new favorite - "Defective number plate".
Their facebook page is also full with photos of defective number plate cases that they're booking.
Irony is they themselves have this plate with Kannada and English numbers on their vehicles and catch people for defective number plates

How come BTP are suddenly carrying out such enthusiastic stop-and-check this week? At least in north Bangalore.....

It can't be north Bangalore isolated for sure, 30th of the month and New Year so close, we will see all kinds of squeezing on the road. Always keep some change handy as they could come up with any violation not even heard so far. Few months back I heard friends from Cochin reporting that they received postal fine challan for not using seat belts on their bikes

While on the topic of overzealous traffic cops, at Bangalore:
Of late, they seem to be in overdrive mode when it comes to towing away (or lifting and throwing 2 wheelers into their tow trucks!) vehicles that according to them are parked illegally (no parking zones). Now, coming to the definition of "No Parking" zone, the traditional school of thought has been:
1. Do not park where there are No-Parking signs (Explicit)
2. Use common sense to identify places that are No-parking zones though there are no signs (Implicit). Examples would be in front of someone's gate, corners of roads, middle of the road, away from the Kerb, etc, etc

However, in the last few days I have heard about few instances in my circles that 2 wheelers and cars have been towed away from places that are seemingly (or have so far been) legal parking zones and the cops are saying that unless there is an explicit Parking sign, it means one cannot park there

The fine amounts charged when vehicles are towed also seem to have skyrocketed - Rs.750 for 2 wheelers and Rs.1250 for 4 wheelers, so be careful when you park on the streets of Bangalore. Needless to mention, 4 wheelers are handled badly (scratches and dents are a given) and you can expect suspension issues if your car is towed away.

Now, coming to the definition of "No Parking" zone, the traditional school of thought has been:

I realised, I had mentioned my experience few years back on this thread and when I found my post, coincidentally I was replying to you only :

Quote:

Originally Posted by paragsachania

On New BEL road when I had once parked the car in front of a More Store waiting for wife to shop for groceries, a constable comes and asks me to remove my car as its "No Parking" Zone whereas I knew that the whole road had absolutely no signs whatsoever and for the first time I was being told that its a No parking zone.

When I asked the cop for signs, he asked me to talk to Saahebru balancing himself on that 150cc Bike. Apparently the Saahebru asked me if I ever read news papers and when I respond in assertive, he says they had passed a Gazette Notification few days back that has made this entire road a "No Parking Zone" and hence no boards/signs as yet.

So the point was - If you are pulled over for a violation, carry all the newspapers from the last few months .

However, in the last few days I have heard about few instances in my circles that 2 wheelers and cars have been towed away from places that are seemingly (or have so far been) legal parking zones and the cops are saying that unless there is an explicit Parking sign, it means one cannot park there

Yes, I was told by a judge about this once. Going by that logic, Bengaluru would have legal parking on roads only for a few thousand vehicles.

Of late, they seem to be in overdrive mode when it comes to towing away (or lifting and throwing 2 wheelers into their tow trucks!) vehicles that according

The fine amounts charged when vehicles are towed also seem to have skyrocketed - Rs.750 for 2 wheelers and Rs.1250 for 4 wheelers.

I always wonder about the business model between crane goons and the BTP. As I see, most of the time these crane guys will pick anything even without a hint of no parking sign anywhere. I think they are then paid by BTP and it ain't difficult to guess, the more the number of vehicle fined by BTP, the more these crane goons make. Perfect case of suo motu actions under the shelter of of BTP to make more money. I am sure it must be a thriving business model in the underbelly of this city with various wannabe crane mafias. I would love to see the same kind of promptness against Trucks on the main roads during day time,peak hours etc. Stinking and rashly driven Chicken Trucks, diagonally parked water tankers along with 360 degree movement of our autowallahs can also be included under the offence list but alas they are yellow plate people. Ohh ! wait, did anyone notice a number plate on a tractor in Bangalore ?. May be I am too engrossed cursing the champions on the road that I missed the number plate on the water tanker.

I always wonder about the business model between crane goons and the BTP.

There is another angle to this. Most of the towing trucks are owned indirectly by the officers themselves. It will be in the name of their wife or a close relative. And to get this task of towing incharge is now in heavy demand apparently. Thinking of that, the traffic police station near my house had a run down towing truck until a couple of months ago when they hiked the towing charges. Now there are three trucks for bike and cars and one dedicated TATA 407 contraption for cars only.

While the new tow trucks do tow the cars quite safely without the old way of lifting the car up with a chain, the problem is they dont use dollys to lift the rear wheel up. And since most of the cars are FWD, the handbrake jams the rear wheel and it starts to skid while being towed. To counter this, one of the idiots from the towing team stands on the rear bumper of the car and puts his weight on the rear tyres to increase traction

God knows what will they do in case they need to tow an RWD vehicle. Especially cars with AWD. Maybe they dont see huge cars as easy targets to tow, since then they will need to have the entire team sitting on the bonnet of the truck to balance the heavy weight of an SUV or a premium car So they might be spared.